Arsonist snagged using facial recognition technology

A shot of the criminal's ear led the device to his name, which then led police to him

By Rocco Parascandola and Joe Kemp
New York Daily News

BROOKLYN — Career criminal Ruben Ubiles was found cowering beneath his girlfriend’s Bedford-Stuyvesant bed by cops who got onto his trail through a clear picture of his ear from a security camera, sources said.

The image was run through the police facial recognition database, which kicked out the suspect’s name based on the side view of his head. Old-fashioned police work then led cops to Ubiles.

“Facial recognition involves distances and proportions on the face, distances between the eyes and the ear, things like that,” said one source. “We had a good angle on his ear that helped to identify him.”